HBP (Snape's) old school textbook: FIFTH year text

[Little lama]

No: HPFGUIDX 137025


> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Little lama" 
<mcandrew at b...> wrote:
> > 
> > I am confident
> that the sectumsempra spell is the same one SS used in the 
Pensieve scene ...  <snip>
> 
> 
> Carol responds:
> I don't think we can call it a "fact" that Severus was using the 
book
> in his fifth year. I'm not even sure there's any basis for 
speculation
> of that nature. We do know that the so-called Prank (in which 
Sirius
> Black lured Severus into the Shrieking Shack when Remus Lupin had
> turned into a werewolf) occurred when Sirius was sixteen--almost
> certainly during sixth year. That action, which was much more
> dangerous than the merely humiliating Pensieve incident at the end 
of
> fifth year, may have prompted Severus to invent the Sectumsempra
> spell, which he then worked out in the margins of his NEWT Potions 
book. <snip>

Lama:

Do we know that The Prank happened in sixth year?  It is 
speculatively listed there in the HP Lexicon timeline, but I'm not 
sure there's any canon evidence for that.  Unless Sirius was younger 
than Snape, which to me seems somewhat more unlikely than not, 
considering his overbearing demeanour towards him, Sirius would have 
turned seventeen in the first half of sixth year, i.e. before 
Snape's 17th birthday on 9 January.  This is why I've assumed The 
Prank took place in fifth year.  I can't think of any particular 
reason why The Prank would necessarily have occurred after the 
Snape's Worst Memory incident, except that there would then be a 
logical progression from a less serious bullying incident on to a 
more serious one.  But things don't always happen as tidily as 
that.. We know that there were many and various incidents between 
Severus and the Marauders throughout their school years, and I doubt 
if they would have rigidly followed a pattern of relentlessly 
increasing gravity.

On the other hand, I do like your suggestion that Severus's 
invention of this vicious spell was prompted by his having felt he 
was in actual danger from these attacks, rather than by mere spite 
and desire to injure - however much in character that would have 
been.  


> I don't think that the spell Severus uses on James, which merely 
cuts
> his face, is Sectumsempra, which would have left James lying in a 
pool
> of his own blood, with all the sixth years who witnessed it 
screaming
> "Murder!" as Moaning Myrtle did. It's probably a variant of the
> stinging hex. (I have the spell name "Relashio" in my head for some
> reason--was that used in the DoM fight or am I just imagining it?)
> Anyway, if you look closely at the description of the effects of 
the
> two spells, it's clear that Sectumsempra is much more dangerous. I
> don't think it had been invented yet.

Lama:

To my mind, the spell Snape used in the Worst Memory incident, 
rather than being a different curse, seemed more like an embryonic 
version of Sectumsempra that didn't quite make it to the fullblown  
stage ... very much akin to Harry's rather feeble early attempts at 
a Patronus.  This half baked attempt at a curse would have fitted 
well with the rest of Severus's generally unsatisfactory performance 
in the Worst Memory scene, which was (quite inexplicably) far below 
his usual level of effectiveness.  I can only attribute this to his 
being overawed by the 'four on one' effect of the marauders' attack, 
but it's all rather odd, because I have the feeling that adult Snape 
could quite possibly have wiped the floor with James Potter in a 
duel.

As for the stinging hex, which was used accidentally on Snape by 
Harry during an Occlumency lesson, my impression of this was that it 
was more like an actual sting that left a swelling and had Snape 
rubbing his wrist as he did, rather than something that caused a cut 
or bleeding.

 
Carol
><snip> As for where the book came from, I've said in another post 
that I
> think Severus left it behind on the last day of his seventh year. 
He'd
> memorized everything in it--the original potions, his shortcuts, 
his
> invented spells--and no longer needed it. Slughorn, who used the 
same
> textbook every year, probably "collected" it as a spare without 
even
> looking at it and brought it with him when he returned to 
Hogwarts. 

Lama:

Maybe... IMO Snape would be the type to hold on to his favourite 
textbook which also contained his original spells, and probably 
wouldn't want to carelessly leave behind/give away any of his 
precious intellectual property to anyone else, either.  I assumed 
that he kept the book, brought it back to Hogwarts for use as a 
reference when he started teaching, and finally left it behind when 
he changed jobs, having forgotten it was still lying at the bottom 
of his stores cupboard.

<snip>
> Carol
> 
> P.S. Note to Valky: Didn't you suggest that some of the curses on 
the
> Horcruxes might have been Snape's inventions? I don't see how 
that's
> possible since he was about eleven when Voldemort returned from his
> wanderings, transformed beyond recognition, and began recruiting
> followers. All of the Horcruxes (with the possible exception of
> Nagini) would already have been created at that point. C.


Lama:

Good point ... I had thought of Snape as Voldemort's Potions Manager 
and hence the probable creator of the Horcrux's protective potion, 
which of course would explain why only he could cure Dumbledore of 
its effects.  This would have been possible if the Horcruxes were 
not hidden in their final locations until some years after they were 
created.

Cheers, Lama